Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic #9 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
We see ex-Young Avenger Speed racing around New York delivering Kwikkee Burgers, accompanied by a voiceover that turns out not to be him. It's an old man with shattered memories who thinks he used to be movie star Martin Preston. But he had a would-be fatal car accident and the Devil saved him but made him an empty monster to be a gateway. The devil wanted the power of the Witch's children and lied about what they were. And somehow the babies were also Martin's hands. Then he recalls that he hid in the 'ruins' of the house where the babies were born in Cresskill, New Jersey and the grown children found him there. And Speed has been looking after him ever since.
Tommy Shepherd gets home and calls out for Master P. He finds the old man in the dining room where he's fallen and spilled some food. Tommy helps him upstairs and gives him a bath. MP calls him a demon, then apologises and they watch Preston's old movie Two-Gun Kid Meets Dracula. Tommy's boyfriend David Alleyne (Prodigy) comes to visit from Krakoa. He greets MP by his full super-id Master Pandemonium. The youths go upstairs and we learn that 'innocent' Martin doesn't realise they are a gay couple and wonders why they haven't got girlfriends.
After sex David asks Tommy if he thinks Master P is safe to be around. Speed says he's just confused, like he recently claimed to have fought Spider-Man but in San Francisco. Prodigy says his localised psychomimesis confirms that MP's mind is scattered but there are dangerous abilities buried in there. And he did bad things which maybe don't deserve to be forgiven. But Tommy just knows that they need each other, after a succession of foster parents dumped him and even his 'brother' Billy has moved to another galaxy (the Andromeda Galaxy where Billy Kaplan/Wiccan's husband Hulking rules the Kree/Skrull Alliance).
Meanwhile Martin Preston has heard someone outside and goes to investigate. He sees an apparition materialise (which readers of YA v2 will recognise as the mysterious being that dresses in the full-mask uniform of the Patriot (but not Eli Bradley who used that id earlier in YA history). And readers of this series will realise that he has the Parallax Stone with him. MP thinks it's Death, who the Devil saved him from, come to claim him at last. But Patriot's clipped words indicate that he isn't the target. However Master P won't let any harm come to his friend and he manifests his old power of turning his arms into demons which he sends to fight the apparition. They tear at him and he bleeds light until all that's left is the empty costume.
Preston finds the Stone on the ground and senses that *it* was responsible for Patriot. It came to Tommy for help but Martin says Tommy isn't the thing he was looking for at this time. But he's unsure whether he used to be it or will be in the future, but he's sure that Tommy can't be it alone. He sends the Stone on its way with the advice not to seek power but forgiveness.
Tommy comes out to see what was going on but Martin just says someone wanted directions. He persuades the bot to sit with him a while on the steps in the evening breeze. And his voiceover says they'll take care of each other until it's time for Tommy to go. But there's no rush.